The Fall of Steve Bannon

Yours truly and Steve Bannon in 2017.

This week saw news that Steve Bannon is to report to prison by July 1.

Through my extracurricular activities I played a small role in helping to send Bannon to prison.

Officially Bannon was jailed for refusing to answer a congressional subpoena but I suspect he will be charged on other frauds, particularly when his role with Chinese criminal Guo Weingui is fully revealed.

Guo’s trial looks likely to wrap right around the time that Bannon is forced to go to jail.

Here’s reporter Dan Friedman of Mother Jones laying it out:

Federal prosecutors have also described Bannon as an unindicted “co-conspirator” in a racketeering conspiracy currently being tried in New York. In that case, Bannon’s patron and ally, Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, faces charges that he stole hundreds of millions of dollars via investment scams from Chinese-speaking supporters of a movement launched by Bannon and Guo that supposedly aimed to “take down” the Chinese Communist Party. Bannon advised Guo on the formation of the some of the investment ventures that prosecutors allege were fraudulent, but Bannon has not been charged in the case.

All very convoluted stuff and I’m happy to have done my part bringing him down.

It’s been a long journey.

“Johnson, who says he’s now a Biden supporter, said he has been cooperating with law-enforcement officials investigating Bannon,” as Rolling Stone reported in 2021.

I don’t think the system is done with Bannon just yet either.

New York officials are pursuing Bannon for money laundering, conspiracy fraud to dating back to 2019 when he defrauded the public with his We Build The Wall grift. (Bannon was pardoned for that crime by President Trump but the state charges are still pending.)

I’d work for him once upon a time — in 2012! — and he had threatened me on several occasions when I became friendly enough with Rebekah Mercer, who I later learned is a Chinese-Russian front.

I believe the phrase he used was that he would “shit down my throat.”

Apparently not.